New iPad Release: Top Five Reasons Not to Upgrade

By Staff Reporter

Updated July 2, 2014 09:13 BST

Apple's New iPad Photo:Reuters

Apple did finally pull off the grand unveiling of the most-awaited tablet device - iPad 3, at the Yerba Buena centre for the Arts in San Francisco on Wednesday. The new tablet quite mysteriously took the moniker 'New iPad' against all fan expectations and escalating rumour mills.

The Cupertino-based technology giant seems to have blundered in its haste to unleash a quick cosmetic upgrade over iPad 2, which is precisely what we anticipated earlier. Much to the dismay of fans and tech-enthusiasts the 'New iPad' let the prospective consumer down on more counts than one.

A cosmetic upgrade over iPad 2 would have fetched the name iPad 2S under normal circumstances. One might wonder if the ill-timed demise of former CEO and co-founder of Apple - Steve Jobs, had anything to do with the drastic changes (or rather a down scale)in the blueprint for the most-awaited gadget of the year.

Take a look at the top five reasons why Apple's New iPad is not truly worth the upgrade.

Reason 1: Limited 4G LTE networks available

Shelling out £499 and upwards for a new iPad is a bit too pricey. When you then realise that the new tablet which has been advertised as 4G, but outside those countries with a working LTE network will only connect with 3G networks, it seems even more galling. Besides, Apple has slashed the prices of iPad 2 3G+Wi-Fi down to £429, which is almost £70 less than you pay for the new tablet (16GB model). Maybe it's time to go back to the roots with legacy models.

Reason 2: New iPad is thicker and heavier

The iPad 2 is 8.8mm thin and weighs in at 607g. The new iPad in contrast is 9.4mm thin and weighs 652g. The extra thickness and weight of the new tablet translates to added strain on your wrist and elbows while carrying it around.

By the way, both iPad 2 and its successor flaunt the same display size - 9.7-inches. So, why bother paying more to carry the extra burden?

Reason 3: No Siri on the new iPad

Much to the dismay of fans world over, Siri - the personal voice assistant of iPhone 4S fame did not make the final cut into the most-anticipated successor to iPad 2. Instead a voice dictation feature is placed onboard, courtesy a mic button on the virtual keyboard.

What if the New iPad doesn't answer simple questions like: What is the time in London or Where am I located right now? One may go back to iPhone 4S.

Reason 4: No quad-core?

There aren't many applications in the market to capitalise on the true potential of quad-core processing yet. Nevertheless, it had been reported in many circles that we would be seeing a quad-core A6 chip to replace the existing dual-core A5 architecture of the iPad 2, following the changing trend for quad-core smartphones and tablets powered by the Tegra 3 chip from Nvidia.

We, however, anticipated that Apple might stick to dual-core architecture and that has come true, however there has been the addition of a quad-core GPU, which will have a bearing on videos, games and other graphic applications and which Apple claims is twice as fast as the 12-core GPU on the Tegra 3 chip.

Reason 5: Operating System

Expectations of an iOS 6 debut accompanying the new iPad launch were soon dashed and Apple instead unveiled iOS 5.1. Everything is not lost though, as the new software update includes multi-language dictation (in French, German and Japanese), camera enhancements and bug fixes for battery-life as well as a drop in audio levels for outgoing calls.

A major software upgrade such as iOS 6 could include key feature upgrades and Siri could be one of them. This is the very reason why the experts would dismiss this release as a minor cosmetic upgrade and so do we.

Buying Decision

Before we make that buying decision, the pricing factor plays a big role in determining the success of the new iPad, when it finally hits stores next week (16 March). Critics would agree Apple could have offered a better bargain for the deal.The prices for Wi-Fi only modelsHovering over £400 is too pricey, especially considering that iPad 2 (16GB) model with Wi-Fi costs you just £329.

It is even better to get the iPad 2 (16GB) with Wi-Fi and 3G for just £429 in comparison to the latest iPad costing about £499 for the 16GB model with Wi-Fi and 4G onboard. The high-end models of 32GB and 64GB (with Wi-Fi and 4G) that cost £579 and £659 are for the millionaires.

For us, the 4G models are just not worth the money, given the fact that most countries around the world are still banking on 3G with lack of infrastructure support for 4G upgrade.